Ivy Creek Maintenance Hut

Ivy Creek Maintenance Hut provides shelter for PATC overseers and crews who work in the South District of Shenandoah National Park.

All PATC overseers and crew leaders are provided a key to open and use this superb facility.

The Hut has a barrel stove and a fireplace for heating. It has a cement floor and comfortable benches & chairs. There are bunks and mattresses for up to nine people. Pots, pans, dishes, flatware are available for cooking and meals. There’s also a single burner propane stove—the overseers keep propane on hand for overseers. Additionally, five oil lamps, lamp oil, and candles are available.

There are two privies and a tool storage area in a single shed-type building nearby.

Originally a Byrd’s Nest Picnic Shelter?

That topic engenders some discussion. The structure was certainly constructed like a Byrd’s Nest facility: it is twice as large as the typical Appalachian Trail Hut in the Park. It has a large fireplace inside, too.

However, Ivy Creek Hut was built in 1965—long after the other Byrd’s Nest picnic shelters were constructed. Shenandoah National Park built it to replace the former Big Flat Shelter after that structure was removed when Loft Mountain Campground was established.